Nature Play Resources

What’s Grasshopper Grove like? Click here to find out. 

Click here to watch a Nature Play Workshop presented by David Sobel at HHNM. 

Click here to learn about the benefits of connecting children with nature

Children are born with an innate sense of wonder. In order to keep this sense of wonder alive children need to experience the joy of frequent, unstructured play in nature. Our busy, over scheduled lives, plugged in society and fear of the unknown have taken this away from today’s children in epidemic proportions. Children are no longer given the opportunity to run through a stream, build forts with sticks or jump in a pile of leaves.  The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum has taken steps to ensure that the children in our area are given the opportunity to find adventure and recapture that wonderment by climbing on fallen trees, digging in dirt piles, balancing on boulders and creating imaginative worlds with sticks, pinecones and bark. Building upon the experiences from our nature based preschool, the Young Naturalist Program, the Museum has created Grasshopper Grove, a safe, accessible nature play space where young children can run down hills, balance on logs, use their imaginations and develop their motor skills while playing in nature.
You can read more about nature play and the many benefits it offers by reviewing the links below:

Children & Nature Network
A Parent’s Guide to Nature Play – Green Hearts
National Wildlife Federation initiative - Green Hour
The Nature Conservancy - Nature Lab
Nature Explore
The Natural Learning Initiative
Nature Play Book List
How Animals Use Smells (Thank you Phoebe for the suggested link!)